Abstract The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been as unprecedented as unexpected, affecting more than 105 million people worldwide as of 8 February 2020 and causing more than 2.3 million deaths according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Not only affecting the lungs but also provoking acute respiratory distress, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is able to infect multiple cell types including cardiac and vascular cells. Hence a significant proportion of infected patients develop cardiac events, such as arrhythmias and heart failure. Patients with cardiovascular comorbidities are at highest risk of cardiac death. To face the pandemic and limit its burden, health authorities have launched several fast-track calls for research projects aiming to develop rapid strategies to combat the disease, as well as longer-term projects to prepare for the future. Biomarkers have the possibility to aid in clinical decision-making and tailoring healthcare in order to improve patient quality of life. The biomarker potential of circulating RNAs has been recognized in several disease conditions, including cardiovascular disease. RNA biomarkers may be useful in the current COVID-19 situation. The discovery, validation, and marketing of novel biomarkers, including RNA biomarkers, require multi-centre studies by large and interdisciplinary collaborative networks, involving both the academia and the industry. Here, members of the EU-CardioRNA COST Action CA17129 summarize the current knowledge about the strain that COVID-19 places on the cardiovascular system and discuss how RNA biomarkers can aid to limit this burden. They present the benefits and challenges of the discovery of novel RNA biomarkers, the need for networking efforts, and the added value of artificial intelligence to achieve reliable advances.

Background and Objective: Human walking is typically assessed using a sensor placed on the lower back or the hip. Such analyses often ignore that the arms, legs, and body trunk movements all have significant roles during walking; in other words, these body nodes with accelerometers form a body sensor network (BSN). BSN refers to a network of wearable sensors or devices on the human body that collects physiological signals. Our study proposes that human locomotion could be considered as a network of well-connected nodes. Methods: While hypothesizing that accelerometer data can model this BSN, we collected accelerometer signals from six body areas from ten healthy participants performing a cognitive task. Machine learning based on genetic programming was used to produce a collection of non-linear symbolic models of human locomotion. Results: With implications in precision medicine, our primary finding was that our BSN models fit the data from the lower back’s accelerometer and describe subject-specific data the best compared to all other models. Across subjects, models were less effective due to the diversity of human sizes. Conclusions: A BSN relationship between all six body nodes has been shown to describe the subject-specific data, which indicates that the network-medicine relationship between these nodes is essential in adequately describing human walking. Our gait analyses can be used for several clinical applications such as medical diagnostics as well as creating a baseline for healthy walking with and without a cognitive load.

The increased global demand for weapons is growing fast both military and civilian grade equipment. The defense industry is experiencing an increase in its trades and production over the globe. Currently global market trade of arms is about US$ 1.9 trillion, with a trend of increase. This paper investigates global trends in defense through analysis of global defense spending and R&D activities with the focus to Bosnian defense industry perspectives. It was observed that Bosnian defense industry has potential to be one of the key players of the national innovation system through which the national R&D output would make notable positive impact on the national economic performances.

Abstract To explore driver behavior in highly automated vehicles (HAVs), independent researchers are mainly conducting short experiments. This limits the ability to explore drivers’ behavioral changes over time, which is crucial when research has the intention to reveal human behavior beyond the first-time use. The current paper shows the methodological importance of repeated testing in experience and behavior related studies of HAVs. The study combined quantitative and qualitative data to capture effects of repeated interaction between drivers and HAVs. Each driver (n=8n=8) participated in the experiment on two different occasions (∼90 minutes) with one-week interval. On both occasions, the drivers traveled approximately 40 km on a rural road at AstaZero proving grounds in Sweden and encountered various traffic situations. The participants could use automated driving (SAE level 4) or choose to drive manually. Examples of data collected include gaze behavior, perceived safety, as well as interviews and questionnaires capturing general impressions, trust and acceptance. The analysis shows that habituation effects were attenuated over time. The drivers went from being exhilarated on the first occasion, to a more neutral behavior on the second occasion. Furthermore, there were smaller variations in drivers’ self-assessed perceived safety on the second occasion, and drivers were faster to engage in non-driving related activities and become relaxed (e. g., they spent more time glancing off road and could focus more on non-driving related activities such as reading). These findings suggest that exposing drivers to HAVs on two (or more) successive occasions may provide more informative and realistic insights into driver behavior and experience as compared to only one occasion. Repeating an experiment on several occasions is of course a balance between the cost and added value, and future research should investigate in more detail which studies need to be repeated on several occasions and to what extent.

The anisotropy of brain white matter microstructure manifests itself in orientational-dependence of various MRI contrasts, and can result in significant quantification biases if ignored. Understanding the origins of this orientation-dependence could enhance the interpretation of MRI signal changes in development, ageing and disease and ultimately improve clinical diagnosis. Using a novel experimental setup, this work studies the contributions of the intra- and extra-axonal water to the orientation-dependence of one of the most clinically-studied parameters, apparent transverse relaxation T2. Specifically, a tiltable receive coil is interfaced with an ultra-strong gradient MRI scanner to acquire multidimensional MRI data with an unprecedented range of acquisition parameters. Using this setup, compartmental T2 can be disentangled based on differences in diffusional-anisotropy, and its orientation-dependence further elucidated by re-orienting the head with respect to the main magnetic field B→0. A dependence of (compartmental) T2 on the fibre orientation w.r.t. B→0 was observed, and further quantified using characteristic representations for susceptibility- and magic angle effects. Across white matter, anisotropy effects were dominated by the extra-axonal water signal, while the intra-axonal water signal decay varied less with fibre-orientation. Moreover, the results suggest that the stronger extra-axonal T2 orientation-dependence is dominated by magnetic susceptibility effects (presumably from the myelin sheath) while the weaker intra-axonal T2 orientation-dependence may be driven by a combination of microstructural effects. Even though the current design of the tiltable coil only offers a modest range of angles, the results demonstrate an overall effect of tilt and serve as a proof-of-concept motivating further hardware development to facilitate experiments that explore orientational anisotropy. These observations have the potential to lead to white matter microstructural models with increased compartmental sensitivity to disease, and can have direct consequences for longitudinal and group-wise T2- and diffusion-MRI data analysis, where the effect of head-orientation in the scanner is commonly ignored.

Abstract Rationale: Pentalogy of Cantrell (POC) is an extremely rare syndrome with an estimated incidence of 1:65,000 to 200,000 live births. Its complete form includes a midline epigastric abdominal wall defect, defects affecting the lower sternum, anterior diaphragm, diaphragmatic pericardium, and various intracardiac defects. Patient concerns: We report a case of complete POC affecting only the first-born of a set of premature dizygotic twins. Diagnosis: A giant omphalocele with an eviscerated liver and bowel on prenatal, obstetric ultrasonography at 24 gestational weeks was observed. At birth, physical examination confirmed a massive (10 × 8 cm) epigastric omphalocele in which a significant part of the liver was seen. A postnatal echocardiogram revealed the presence of an ostium secundum atrial septal defect, perimembranous ventricular septal defect, and moderate pulmonary stenosis. X-ray showed an abnormal intrathoracic positioned stomach, which was confirmed with a plain x-ray of the upper intestinal tract with hydrosoluble contrast. Computed tomography (CT) scan revealed the sternum's absence and a close connection between the pericardial sac and the stomach wall. Interventions: The patient underwent surgical intervention at 18 days of age. Outcomes: Despite adequate and appropriate postoperative treatment, the baby rapidly deteriorated and died 72 hours after surgery. Lessons: POC is a complex, high-mortality syndrome whose management requires a multidisciplinary approach and meticulous planning. Despite all efforts, POC carries a poor prognosis, particularly in patients affected by its complete form.

Animal cognition research aims to understand animal minds by using a diverse range of methods across an equally diverse range of species. Throughout its history, the field has sought to mitigate various biases that occur when studying animal minds, from experimenter effects to anthropomorphism. Recently, there has also been a focus on how common scientific practices might affect the reliability and validity of published research. Usually, these issues are discussed in the literature by a small group of scholars with a specific interest in the topics. This study aimed to survey a wider range of animal cognition researchers to ask about their attitudes towards classic and contemporary issues facing the field. Two-hundred and ten active animal cognition researchers completed our survey, and provided answers on questions relating to bias, replicability, statistics, publication, and belief in animal cognition. Collectively, researchers were wary of bias in the research field, but less so in their own work. Over 70% of researchers endorsed Morgan’s canon as a useful principle but many caveated this in their free-text responses. Researchers self-reported that most of their studies had been published, however they often reported that studies went unpublished because they had negative or inconclusive results, or results that questioned “preferred” theories. Researchers rarely reported having performed questionable research practices themselves—however they thought that other researchers sometimes (52.7% of responses) or often (27.9% of responses) perform them. Researchers near unanimously agreed that replication studies are important but too infrequently performed in animal cognition research, 73.0% of respondents suggested areas of animal cognition research could experience a ‘replication crisis’ if replication studies were performed. Consistently, participants’ free-text responses provided a nuanced picture of the challenges animal cognition research faces, which are available as part of an open dataset. However, many researchers appeared concerned with how to interpret negative results, publication bias, theoretical bias and reliability in areas of animal cognition research. Collectively, these data provide a candid overview of barriers to progress in animal cognition and can inform debates on how individual researchers, as well as organizations and journals, can facilitate robust scientific research in animal cognition.

Interactive image-guided surgery technologies enable accurate target localization while preserving critical nearby structures in many surgical interventions. Current state-of-the-art interfaces largely employ traditional anatomical cross-sectional views or augmented reality environments to present the actual spatial location of the surgical instrument in preoperatively acquired images. This work proposes an alternative, simple, minimalistic visual interface intended to assist during real-time surgical target localization. The estimated 3D pose of the interventional instruments and their positional uncertainty are intuitively presented in a visual interface with respect to the target point. A usability study with multidisciplinary participants evaluates the proposed interface projected in surgical microscope oculars against cross-sectional views. The latter was presented on a screen both stand-alone and combined with the proposed interface. The instruments were electromagnetically navigated in phantoms. The usability study demonstrated that the participants were able to detect invisible targets marked in phantom imagery with significant enhancements for localization accuracy and duration time. Clinically experienced users reached the targets with shorter trajectories. The stand-alone and multi-modal versions of the proposed interface outperformed cross-sectional views-only navigation in both quantitative and qualitative evaluations. The results and participants’ feedback indicate potential to accurately navigate users toward the target with less distraction and workload. An ongoing study evaluates the proposed system in a preclinical setting for auditory brainstem implantation.

In this study we investigate the level of adoption of internet banking in Bosnia and Herzegovina across gender, age group and education levels. Data is collected true the google forms questioner. We use descriptive statistics and inferential statistics to test out hypothesis in SPSS 22. We find out that some of the main reasons of not adopting internet in providing some of the banking services are security issue and that clients do not find reason for use of internet banking. Study suggests that significantly lower transaction cost and faster transaction process are important reason for increase in internet banking adoption by clients in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Also, we find out that null hypothesis regarding distribution of internet banking adoption across gender, age group and education level cannot be rejected.

Complexity and complexity economics are relatively new fields of science, both of which started at the beginning of the 1980s. As it had emerged, questions have been raised regarding complexity’s applicability on human-involved systems and its predictive powers. Economics has been in the spotlight in recent years within the framework of complexity, since economics is one of the most well-established fields in social sciences. Within this framework, the field is referred to as complexity economics. While in its early years, complexity economics research had distanced itself from the reductionist neoclassic tradition of economics that has been identified by its use of, and reliance on, descriptive equations. One of the salient feature of complexity economics is its somewhat unorthodox approach to economic systems, as in its emphasis on non-equilibria. However in recent years, the proponents have become more assertive that complexity economics needs to be more modest and symbiotically co-exist with well-established mainstream economics. Although we focus on economics under the prism of complexity, our underlying interest is in the investigation of how other disciplines, such as industrial engineering and operations research, may benefit from a similar complexity-oriented perspective. Keywords: Complexity, complexity economics, mainstream economics, equation-based economics, non-equilibrium

Teaching the concepts of electrical and thermal transport in solids begins in elementary school through simple macroscopic models and progressively develops to microscopic quantum models within specialized university courses. Educational research has pointed to a number of misconceptions in this field, especially when it comes to understanding related phenomena at the microscopic level. This study aimed to design an appropriate open-ended version of the concept inventory to test the level of students’ understanding of microscopic models of electrical and thermal conduction in solids (METCS). The METCS concept inventory consists of 27 open-ended questions that examine the understanding of different and interrelated concepts. We used it as a tool for conducting interviews on a sample of ten students from the universities of Rijeka and Split (Croatia). The results of our research confirmed some previously discovered students’ misconceptions and revealed a wide range of new ones. These results can be used to stimulate student discussions and to design curricula and lecture plans for more efficient teaching of transport phenomena in solids. The obtained spectrum of misconceptions will serve as a reference tool for the development of a multiple-choice conceptual METCS test to allow research on larger sample.

Background DIALOG+ is a resource-oriented and evidence-based intervention to improve quality of life and reduce mental distress. While it has been extensively studied in mental health care, there is little evidence for how to use it in primary care settings for patients with chronic physical conditions. Considering that DIALOG+ is used in existing routine patient-clinician meetings and is very low cost, it may have the potential to help large numbers of patients with chronic physical conditions, mental distress and poor quality of life who are treated in primary care. This is particularly relevant in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where resources for specialised services for such patients are scarce or non-existent. Methods An exploratory non-controlled trial will be conducted to primarily assess the feasibility and acceptability and, secondarily, outcomes of delivering DIALOG+ to patients with chronic physical conditions and poor quality of life in primary care settings in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia and Uganda. Thirty patients in each country will receive DIALOG+ up to three times in monthly meetings over a 3-month period. Feasibility will be assessed by determining the extent to which the intervention is implemented as planned. Experiences will be captured in interviews and focus groups with care providers and participants to understand acceptability. Quality of life, symptoms of anxiety and depression, objective social situation and health status will be assessed at baseline and again after the three-session intervention. Discussion This study will inform our understanding of the extent to which DIALOG+ may be used in the routine care of patients with chronic physical conditions in different primary care settings. The findings of this exploratory trial can inform the design of future full randomised controlled trials of DIALOG+ in primary care settings in LMICs. Trial registration All studies were registered prospectively (on 02/12/2020 for Uganda and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and 01/12/2020 for Colombia) within the ISRCTN Registry. ISRCTN17003451 (Bosnia and Herzegovina), ISRCTN14018729 (Colombia) and ISRCTN50335796 (Uganda). Protocol version and date: v2.0; 28/07/2020 (Bosnia and Herzegovina), v0.3 02/08/2020 (Colombia) and v1.0, 05/11/2020 (Uganda).

As the PHY/MAC-layer IR-HARQ and RLC-layer ARQ error recovery procedures, adopted in LTE, may impose additional delay when their code-block retransmissions occur, the arising question is whether these significantly contribute to IP and consequently RTP packet delays, and finally degrade the overall application-layer end-to-end QoE, especially when voice is transmitted over LTE? With this regard, we propose and demonstrate a VoLTE QoS and QoE test procedure based on PHY/MAC/RLC/IP/TCP-UDP/RTP cross-layer protocol analysis and perceptual speech quality QoE measurements. We identified monotonic relationship between the paired observations: QoE and HARQ RTT, i.e. between the PESQ voice quality rating and the IP/RTP packet latency, for given BLER of the received MAC/RLC code-blocks. Specifically, we found out that, for the HARQ RTT value of about 8 ms, only up to 2 HARQ retransmissions (and consequently no RLC-ARQ one) is appropriate during any voice packet, otherwise delay accumulation might not be accordingly “smoothed out” by jitter/playback buffers along the propagation path.